CardCow Vintage Postcard Blog

At Disney World in Orlando last week I had lunch at the Old Key West resort one day, and what do you know - the walls were plastered with framed old postcards from Key West: And my favorite, this tri-fold panoramic postcard:

The Territory Ahead used several of my cards in their fall catalog. Order a free copy and check out the postcards and the clothes.

I took my brother to the railroad museum in Sacramento last weekend. I've been there before - it's one of the best museums I've ever been to. They have some amazing displays and exhibits that rival the Smithsonian and the Henry Ford. They have a number of old cars you can walk through, and one of them is a mail car which probably transported millions of postcards across the country. They had few old postcards on display which didn't really have much to do with the railroad - displaying some RPO (Railway Post Office) cancels would have been better. I have a number of RPO cancels on postcards and I can't help wondering if any traveled on this car...

Went to Alcatraz last weekend. The postcard display in the gift shop was the best part! There were only about 20 different views, but they reprinted them and stuck them on posterboard in this large display. I wonder if any prisoners actually sent any of these older cards from "the rock".... See more postcards from alcatraz here.

Wall Street certainly hasn't changed much in the past 100 years. Nostalgic for the good old days of the stock market crash of 1929? Well here are some views:

Not postcard related, but I had to post this image from the toy store in Ginza. Found a lot of bad translations last week, but this was the funniest. "When you lean on a display and ride a load, please very stop it because it is danger."

Spent last week in Tokyo. I wanted to go to Jimbocho where I heard there are a lot of old book stores and antique shops, but I didn't have a chance to go to that area. There was just too much other stuff to see, and unfortunately this wasn't a postcard buying trip. I did find a few tourist shops selling modern postcards though: Most of the modern cards I found were selling for around 80 Yen - around 75 cents. Lots of nice wood block prints, printed on nice paper. Much nicer than typical glossy, scenic cards found in the US (although there were plenty of views of Tokyo to be found as well).

Lots of new stuff added this week: Over 2000 Misc US Chromes 1400 Misc US Divided Back 700 Misc US White Border 700 Misc US Linen 700 Massachusetts Chrome

I listed 700 great linen postcards this week. Many views, and a few interesting advertising cards - like this Wallpaper Delivery Van. Both the front and back of this rare card are great! Linen advertising cards like this one are always in demand. Partly because they are so rare, but also because of the great imagery and cross-domain appeal.

I found myself in Baltimore not too long ago. I wouldn't recommend it. I went to the National Museum Dentistry. Really. It wasn't too bad actually, and you don't have to fight your way through the crowds of schoolchildren like you do at the Smithsonian. I did like this postcard of the monkey dentist and the hippopatamus . Mounting with clear corner tabs like this behind a nice matte is a good way to go if you don't want to use any adhesives. I don't think I've seen any other cards from this (French?) series. If you happen to know more about this artist or series please let me know.

I keep a close eye on postcard prices. I thought it would be useful to do a monthly post on the most expensive postcard sales, so I decided to post those in a new blog: http://valuablepostcards.blogspot.com/ I'll try to update it monthly...

New York Resident Magazine used a few of my Large Letter postcards from the east coast, along with some vintage views for a feature article in their June issue. The large letter cards in particular always seem to add a nice "retro" feel to any travel article.

I listed this card with the little tuba player a few weeks ago, and I knew it would sell quickly. Children and music instruments are always popular topics. And of course the caption is great!

I was at the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH not too long ago and along with many nice historical prints in the lobby and halls, they also have a huge framed postcard display: I think this is the largest single group of framed cards I've seen on display.

I spent most of last month in Milwaukee. One place I visited was Johnson Controls. You've probably seen their products - they've been making commercial thermostats for around 100 years. They have a little museum in their lobby that shows some of their products over the years. On one wall of the lobby they had this display of postcard images mixed in with images of their products. I'm not quite sure what they were going for here since there wasn't a description, but I'm guessing the old postcards represented buildings that had installed Johnson Controls products. They had quite a few cards from the early 1900's and some Chromes. Kind of a neat way to display them though - as you can see it has a 3-D look, with each of the cards suspended off the glass behind it.

I was in Milwaukee for most of last month. I stayed at the Ambassador hotel downtown a couple nights. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but step inside and it's a time warp to the 1930's. I have a few cards of the Ambassador from the 40's and 50's myself, but it was great to see a framed collection of cards displayed prominently in the lobby. I like how they have the back of one of the mailed cards showing the message. I get a lot of requests for duplicate cards so folks can display both sides of the card. Most view cards, especially hotels, have some descriptive text on the back (owners, phone numbers, rates) so they make for nice front & back displays. I think of postcards as works of art - so framing them as such makes perfect sense to me. Of course many topical (Oilettes for example) and Artist Signed cards were in fact prints of original artwork, but even Linens and Chrome cards have a level of artistry not seen in many modern cards.

Similar to my last post, I got this email last week from a postcard publisher: What a giggle it was to find the picture of the McCray Memorial Hospital of Kendallville, IN on the Internet. This is one of several picture postcards I published in 1953 of views of Kendlllville. I expect I still have a few in a box someplace. In fact I just ran across the original Ecktachromes earlier today.

Once in a while someone stumbles across a card on my site that has special meaning to them. I got this email from a customer last week: Just to let you know, that the old Dutch windmill was total serendipity! I was doing research and stumbled on your site. That windmill has sentimental meaning to me so I checked it out. As luck would have it, that particular card was addressed to my great grandmother! Just by a fluke!!! Can you believe it! I was so flabbergasted I almost wet my pants! I had to buy it! Not only that, but after I found it, I noticed you had two. The other had already been sold, but I had not seen the other until I had gotten the one with my great grandmother. Is that not a kick?! Thank you for indulging my story on you. We will be talking about this one for a long time to come! I only wish my Grammie was alive, she would have really gotten a kick out of this! I'd probably get a lot more notes like this if I had the text from the messages on all my cards, ...